Blog 3-Conflicts in the Digital Age

With war being talked about constantly in magazines, television, radio, podcast's and newspapers the public is constantly reminded about the type of world we are living in and the physical wars that are taking place. But did anyone think that the Internet would not be safe as well.

The Internet is the fastest growing technology that the world has ever seen and with the on going physical war in Iraq, it is difficult to think that people would be using the Internet as a weapon. Little did the world know that the Internet, when it was started, can harm or ruin an entire country by hacking into computer networks and stealing information.

According to 60 Minutes, “much of it was still theory, but we were told that before too long it might be possible for a hacker with a computer to disable critical infrastructure in a major city and disrupt essential services, to steal millions of dollars from banks all over the world, infiltrate defense systems, extort millions from public companies, and even sabotage our weapons systems.”

This is known as cyber warfare and it is a serious crime that the world is dealing with. More and more, there are reports of countries and people hacking into other computers and stealing private information. Others are creating Trojans and viruses and sending them out to the public to ruin computers systems. This is not just a theory anymore, it is FACT and it actually happening everywhere and it is making the Internet more dangerous to be on.

It is reported that Russia, Brazil and China are the world leaders in cyber crime and malicious activity. The United States and United Kingdom are reported as the top two countries to be victims of cyber attacks. Countries all over the world are investing more money into cyber security.

Back in 2008, Pentagon officials told CNN, “U.S. military unclassified computer systems were broken into and information was taken.” The allegations stated that Chinese military tried to hack into U.S. military systems and plan to destroy satellites and invest in nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles with the use of Kylin, China‘s security operating system.

There are also threats that China’s spending would increase by 18% in the past year for cyber warfare. China denies the allegations of the cyber crime and claimed that they too were victims of cyber crime. Although, the United States has yet to drop or ignore this issue.

Today, there is a constant verbal battle between the United States and China of what really happened and “who did what.” The United States Homeland Security and other government parts are teaming up together to create a safer and more protected computer system that will prevent this issue from happening again.

The United States is more aware of the threats cyber warfare can have and they focused on fixing and creating a better cyber security to protect our nation. President Obama addressed this issue during a speech and he stated: "It is now clear this cyber threat is one [of] the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation.”